Martijn Dendievel

Belgian conductor Martijn Dendievel is designated Chief Conductor of the Hofer Symphoniker and Associate Conductor of Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen. After winning the 2021 German Conducting Award and obtaining laureate awards at the Donatella Flick Competition as well as the International Conducting Competition Rotterdam, he is invited to orchestras across the world where he is often appraised for his thorough knowledge of the repertoire and his vivid and expressive conducting.
Besides his engagements with the Hofer Symphoniker and Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Martijn regularly appears with orchestras and theatres such as Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Sinfonia Varsovia. In the current season, he will make his debut with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, and Concerto Köln, whilst returning to the WDR and MDR Sinfonieorchester, as well as the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.
In recent years, Martijn had acclaimed debuts with renowned orchestras such as the Tonkünstler-Orchester Wien, Brussels Philharmonic, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège and Copenhagen Philharmonic. Furthermore, he has conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Staatskapelle Weimar, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, amongst others. In 2023, he debuted at the George Enescu Festival and Tivoli Festival.
In the operatic field, he recently led a new production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, which was received with great enthusiasm by the audience and the critis alike, who praised Martijn’s reading “which shines for its freshness and refinement” and for the “true musicality and genuine poetry”. In this season, he will return to Bologna for a new production of Don Giovanni.
Growing up in a family of musicians, Martijn showed a great interest in music during his childhood and took his first musical steps on the violin at the age of three. A few years later, he switched to the cello and started playing the recorder, percussion, and the harpsichord. As an instrumentalist, he gained orchestral experience in various youth orchestras, and has performed in halls such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and BOZAR in Brussels.
At the age of 14, he was exceptionally admitted to the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in music theory with distinction, whilst studying cello with Jeroen Reuling. Martijn then moved to Germany to study conducting at the HfM Franz Liszt Weimar with Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik. In July 2022, he finished his master’s degree. Martijn has received mentoring from Bernard Haitink and Paavo Järvi, amongst others. He also received significant support from encounters with Christian Thielemann, Iván Fischer and Edo de Waart.
Apart from the music language, he is fluent in Dutch, German, English, and French, and has an extensive knowledge of Italian and Swedish.